


The Baby Phenomenon

by snowmissus (soul_of_blaze)



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Babies, Gen, M/M, So many babies, basically the rest of the team, theyre mentioned at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 17:08:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6433015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soul_of_blaze/pseuds/snowmissus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a picture of Jack Zimmermann holding a baby on his twitter feed. </p>
<p>He retweets it without thinking and then quickly tweets ‘??????’ before setting down his phone. </p>
<p>Bitty isn’t sure what to do with this image. </p>
<p>(Or alternatively: Five times Jack Zimmermann holds babies and one time he holds his own baby)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Baby Phenomenon

**Author's Note:**

> its like 1am but look-- i have had this idea since last week okay. this is my first fic for check please and im a lil nervous but i hope i did well

  1. _the first_



Bitty only misses the first time it happens because he cannot make it to a game halfway across the country. And definitely not during midterm season.

He should be holed up in his room, studying. That was his plan, after having baked a half a dozen pies for the boys, but somehow he found himself dragged downstairs. Rans and Holtz are on couch with Chowder squeezed between them. Lardo leans against their legs as they all watch the T.V.

(He’s fairly sure that Chowder would be sitting elsewhere (the boy doesn’t touch the couch much besides pregame naps) but Bitty refuses to touch the thing.)

Nursey, Dex, and a couple of the frogs usually join the Haus residents when the Falconers play but it isn’t a big game. Besides, they’re either studying for midterms or grabbing the chance at sleep without a game this week.

Bitty tucks his feet under his thighs, his eyes tracking Jack’s _#1_ across the ice. The cheer that erupts from the couch as Jack scores has him smiling. His phone buzzes rapidly in his hand.

He doesn’t need to look. They’d started texting the group text from the Falconers’ first game. Any time Jack had a game, the texts came pouring in whether of chirps or excited key smashing. At the least… Jack seemed to enjoy it. Lardo rolls her eyes while Ransom and Holster keep texting everyone excitedly. Jack’s goal pulls the Falconers ahead in time for a close win.

Ransom and Holster howl excitedly and jump up from the couch, pulling a squealing Chowder with them. It’s a small miracle that Lardo rolls herself out of the way.

“Celebratory pie!” Ransom shouts, he and Holster almost carrying Chowder into the kitchen. _Lord._

Bitty smiles fondly and pulls open twitter. He’s intent on tweeting about the game-winning goal but it’s a picture that snags his attention first.

The Falconers jersey catches his eye first but Jack Zimmermann’s easy, light smile takes up his whole attention immediately. Then he locks onto the small lump in Jack’s arms.

There is a picture of Jack Zimmermann holding a baby on his twitter feed.

He retweets it without thinking and then quickly tweets ‘??????’ before setting down his phone.

Bitty isn’t sure what to do with this image.

Only that, that Jack looks right with a baby in his arms. The complete hockey gear should make it look ridiculous but it doesn’t.

No one else is in the living room, he thinks that Lardo must have gone to the kitchen while he had his crisis over his boyfriend holding a baby.

_Okay_ , Bitty thinks, and then texts Jack before going to save the kitchen from his teammates.

 

_Bittle: whose baby???_

Jack: baby ?

_Bittle: [img_f7df]_

_Bittle: are you making babies appear out of thin air?_

Jack: oh

Jack: he was a fan

_Bittle: a bit young_

Jack: no he was older than me

_Bittle: (_ _￣_ _ω_ _￣;)_

Jack: what

Jack: you meant the baby

Jack: >:(

 

Bitty stifles a laugh at the last text, curled up in bed. He’d saved the image of Jack onto his phone after staring at it for almost a minute.

 

_Bittle: my, mr zimmermann_

_Bittle: was that an emoji?_

 

_ii._

It doesn’t become A Thing right away. Though every time Bitty sees a picture of Jack and a baby, he retweets them and then tweets about it.

Bitty slowly finds himself less star struck by the pictures of Jack and babies. He enjoys seeing them but the initial effect has worn off. Over time, more and more pictures begin popping up. The first picture set off a catalyst of some sort, or at least that’s what he attributes it to. No one had been throwing their infants at Jack before the first picture.

Despite the many pictures, Bitty has never been privy to people asking Jack to hold their children for a picture.

He drives to Providence, by mere chance that one of Jack’s home games lines up perfectly with his schedule. The rest of the team is going as well, though Bitty drives separately for many reasons. One of them happens to be the fact that no one on the team knows yet.

They haven’t even told Shitty.

It’ll come at some point but both Bitty and Jack are comfortable keeping it to themselves.

The game is a glorious win, not only because Jack pulls a hat trick out of it. The Falconers win and it isn’t even close, as they pull far ahead of the other team. The members of the Samwell Hockey Men’s team that are there all wave excitedly at Jack. They’re eager to celebrate with Jack, even more so as everyone but Bitty hasn’t seen him in a while.

“Why don’t y’all grab a table at the restaurant? I’ll get Jack.”

Holster gives him a thumbs up and then he and Ransom herd the frogs and tadpoles out to the parking lot. Bitty gives them a couple of moments and once he’s sure they’re not going to burst back in, he heads to the locker room.

Even though he and Jack haven’t said a thing, he’s at least made acquaintances with a good number of Jack’s teammates. He doesn’t know what they think but no one has said anything.

It might be the pies.

Bitty grins as he rounds the corner and sees Jack standing there. He’s talking to one of his teammates but as Bitty walks closer, said teammate elbows him.

“Oh,” says Jack and smiles, “Bittle.”

“Ready? I told Holster and Ransom to go ahead but I think they may not wait for us.”

“Dinner with my college team,” Jack supplies to his teammate, who utters a ‘cool’. He smiles at Bitty before bumping his fist against Jack’s and leaving.

“I’m serious,” Bitty says. “I think they’ll order without us.”

“Let’s go then.”

He wants to kiss Jack but it’s definitely not the place for it. Not even hand holding could happen.

They’re exiting the arena, debating between cars when a lady nearly runs into Bitty.

“Oh my,” he exclaims and then offers the woman an apologetic smile.

She doesn’t notice, however, as her eyes are glued on Jack. Not that Bitty blames her and besides, Jack Zimmermann has a very distinct look about him. It’s hard not to recognize him.

“That was a wonderful game!” She exclaims excitedly. “That hatty!”

“Thank you,” Jack smiles.

Bitty notices the baby snug on the lady’s front after a moment. She’s moving awkwardly before her hands go to the baby. He feels his face break into a grin. This is the first time he’s ever been present for someone asking Jack to hold a baby.

This is the first time Bitty has been present when Jack will be holding a baby.

“Oh, I hope it’s not too rude,” she says, her eyes slipping towards Bitty for a moment, “but would you mind…?”

Jack shakes his head and holds out his arms in a way that speaks of his ease with the situation. Bitty watches, mostly in fascination, as Jack takes the toddler comfortably in his arms. Also, said toddler is wearing a Falconers onesie and if that isn’t the cutest darned thing, he doesn’t know what is.

He desperately wants to snap a picture himself but that would be rude.

“Would you mind?” It’s like the woman read his mind.

After taking a picture with her phone, Bitty manages to politely ask if he can take one with his phone. It’s not too hard to make up an excuse about how Jack likes having the photos as well. He tweets it after she’s left and they’re in the car.

_Absolutely adorable_ , he tweets, _and who knew they made Falconers onesies?_

_iii._

The most exhilarating moment in his recent life is being able to hold hands with Jack Zimmermann. He doesn’t have to check to make sure no one is around. They veer from overt public affection but now, Eric can reach out and take Jack’s hand if he wants.

No one cares.

Correction: they do care but it doesn’t matter. Jack Zimmermann is his boyfriend and everyone knows that.

(The SMH team had a bit of a fit over them when it came out. Especially when Jack said how long they had been together.)

Today, they’re walking in a park near the apartment. Providence is nice and Eric finds himself glad that he moved there shortly after graduation. He’s also glad that Jack had the sense for a good kitchen in the apartment. It makes his heart twirls in his chest.

Jack doesn’t always need to fill the silence. They’re simply walking, fingers intertwined.

Rather all of the sudden, a woman with a stroller almost bowls over them. Eric jumps out of the way and into Jack. He steadies Eric as the woman gives them both an extremely embarrassed look.

“I’m sorry!”

“That’s fine,” Jack replies, his hand staying on Eric’s shoulder.

She stares at both of them for a long minute. “Oh my god,” she says. “You’re Jack Zimmermann!”

Eric looks towards the small child in the stroller then back to her.

“I don’t suppose you want Jack to hold your daughter?” There’s a slight smile on Eric’s face. It’s been a couple of years but the baby holding hasn’t petered off. Jack pretty much picks up children before the words are out of their parents’ mouths.

Eric doesn’t retweet all the photos now. His feed would be Jack and babies only then. Which wouldn’t be a horrible thing…

“Well I..” the woman smiles a little, “I don’t need you to hold her but I can’t say I would say no to a picture of you with her.”

Jack easily bends down next to the stroller, smiling at the little girl before effectively posing for the mother.

“Thank you,” she laughs as she takes back the stroller, “it must be awkward, with everyone asking you to hold their babies.”

“I don’t mind,” Jack says, offering a wave to her and the little girl before taking Eric’s hand again.

Though he doesn’t retweet or tweet a photo, he does make a quick tweet about babies and Jack Zimmermann.

_iv._

Eric Bittle is running on two hours of sleep and too many cups of coffee to count. Jack Zimmermann, he’s sure, has had no sleep or at the least an extremely miniscule amount.

“Do you think we made it in time?”

“I think we might be too early,” Eric says as Jack parks the car. The hospital looms over them and he breathes in while Jack checks something. This is the first Eric notices the plastic bag he has. “What’s that?”

“A surprise,” Jack answers as they get out of the car.

“You think I’m going to tell him?”

Eric checks his phone, scrolling through their group chat quickly. He stopped checking it earlier but now there are several messages that are more significant than everyone freaking out.

“You’ll see,” Jack insists before tacking on, “look, we aren’t too early, there’s Ransom.”

True to that, Ransom is standing outside of the hospital. He beams at them.

“Yo. Chowder was afraid you wouldn’t find the room. Come on.”

“Oh, lord, that boy,” Eric smiles.

There’s a lot of commotion in the hospital despite the early hours. Eric checks the time, really checks it, and it’s only an hour into visiting hours. Ransom leads them to an elevator, which takes them up the fourth floor of the hospital.

It’s a short walk into the maternity ward. Suddenly, as they pass through the separating doors, it feels like they’ve entered an entirely different world. Like, there are babies everywhere. Babies and exhausted mothers.

Sure, the reality isn’t that, not exactly, but Eric keeps catching sight of babies as they walk down the hall. There’s a nurse’s desk and Ransom stops at it.

“Hey, we’re here for Chowd- Chris and Caitlin Chow? Is it cool if we go in?”

One of the nurses stares at the three of the, unimpressed but then waves at them. “Don’t overwhelm them or I’ll drag you out.”

Ransom gives her a thumbs up (which is really weird) before taking them the rest of the way down the hall.

How everyone fits in the room, Eric cannot fathom, but he also decides to not question it too much. Chowder’s face is bright and he keeps talking excitedly until Farmer shushes him.

Lil’ baby Chow (that’s what Eric is calling them, until he learns their name) squirms in Farmer’s arms and besotted look on Chowder’s face is too much. Honestly, Eric never imagined the day that his baby Chowder would have a baby. Here they all are now, though, crowded into a hospital room. Even years after the frogs graduated, their team had kept on.

“You gonna introduce us to the melon, Chowder?” Shitty asks.

“Oh!” Chowder jumps up, but somehow in a careful way that doesn’t upset Farmer and Lil’ baby Chow. “Yes, of course! This is, this is Erica Chow.”

Eric stares at Erica and then looks at Chowder.

“Oh lord,” he says softly, taken aback by that.

“Someone do something before Bits faints,” chirps Lardo, which in itself helps Eric recover.

The solution the rest of the team comes up with is to hold the baby, everyone somehow taking turns in a quiet, easy manner. Eric ends up holding her first. She’s a cute little one, her eyes still blue but he doesn’t think they’ll stay that way. Then, he’s passing her into Holster’s arms and scooting his way over toward Farmer.

“I hope that’s okay,” she says. He knows what she means.

“Oh, yes, I… it’s nice of y’all. I don’t mind.” Eric smiles. “As long as her name isn’t Erica Richard.”

“Erica Jaclyn,” Farmer says, smiling more when he looks at her in surprise. “But I think we’ll keep that a secret.”

Eric chuckles. The chirps would be endless if everyone knew.

“JACK ZIMMERMANN IS HOLDING MY BABY!”

He forgot that Chowder could even scream that loud. The sight of Jack holding Chowder’s daughter is more endearing than any of the pictures he has. This moment, though, is private and Eric finds that he wants to keep it that way. No pictures, no tweets. Unless Chowder really wants one.

“I brought you something,” Jack tells Chowder and Farmer. Chowder make an excited noise and Eric hears Farmer protesting but then Jack pulls out the small Falconers onesie. It has the 1 on it and no doubt Zimmerman scrawled across the back.

Oh lord.

Chowder looks like he is going to cry. “Oh my gosh! I love it! She’s going to look so cute!” And Farmer is laughing but then, then Jack brings out another onesie.

It’s the San Jose Sharks and Eric doesn’t catch the number or name before Chowder is basically crying on Jack Zimmermann while Lardo handles the baby behind them.

 

_v._

Sometime down the line, Jack and Eric fall into a routine. It’s sort of hard to do, but they find a rhythm in their lives that works. With hockey, Jack has a very specific schedule at least and they follow that more often than not. Eric has much more flexibility anyway.

Jack’s free day essentially becomes Date Day. The dates vary from staying in to full going out. Public dates are harder, because everyone in Providence knows Jack. They also recognize Eric. And they only want to spend time together, not be mobbed by fans wherever they go.

The little café on the corner happens to be perfect.

No one there is star struck by either of them. Eric thinks this is because either they don’t watch hockey or they’ve seen the pair enough that the novelty has worn off. Whatever it is, he doesn’t care. He can drink coffee and eat pastries without being photographed.

Mostly, he can do normal things with Jack and that is enough.

They’re sitting in said café when Eric gets up to use the restroom. He comes back to his boyfriend talking calmly with a crying five-year old.

He waits a moment, watching the exchange before moving to sit back down. The little boy notices him and looks embarrassed. Eric resolves to fix the situation immediately. At least, he can with Jack’s help. Before too long, the little boy has stopped crying. He’s seated next to Jack in their booth. Eric has ordered him a hot chocolate and “whatever he wanted off the menu”.

Also, there’s the way the boy sneaks glances at Jack. He knows who Jack is and Eric feels a little relief. If a parent comes looking in here, they won’t come off as people who would kidnap a child.

Just that, by a strange stroke of luck, a boy that happened to be a fan of Jack Zimmermann wandered his way into the café where Jack was drinking his coffee.

As minutes turn into an hour, Eric starts to worry. The fact remains that he wants to make sure the boy is home safe and sound by the end of the afternoon. He keeps checking the door as though it will open and reveal a mother or father or any type of guarding at this point.

Jack continues chatting seriously with the boy. Jack takes children very seriously, even babies, and it’s overwhelmingly endearing.

The bell over the door rings and they both look towards it as an extremely worried woman steps inside the café. It isn’t hard to guess and Eric stands up, bee lining towards her.

“Hello,” he says cheerfully, then gestures towards the little boy and Jack, “is this boy yours?”

“Oh! Thank goodness,” she runs over, pulling her son into a hug before scolding him softly. Her eyes drift over Jack, then Eric, and then again. “I see,” she teases her son, “running off to find celebrities, are you?”

There’s a lot of laughing in the end and Eric is happy that they were the ones that found him. He decides not to tell anyone about the picture of Jack talking with the little boy. It’ll stay on his phone.

 

_\+ i_

Although Eric is usually home, he occasionally has to work different hours. It means he comes home later than normal.

It means that Jack is already home when he gets back. He’s happy about seeing his husband. Always happy, but more happy when they both have the next day off. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything but Eric personally thinks they’re deserving of a night out.

Coming into the house, he steps over a stuffed cat and then several wooden blocks. Apparently Jack doesn’t feel like cleaning up.

But there’s a path cleared from toys and he takes it, weaving carefully into the living room. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. Normally he would hear Jack in the kitchen or one of the other rooms but now everything is silent.

He’s walking by the couch but he stops.

There, on the couch, is Jack. And there, sleeping on his chest, is their daughter. Her blonde curls are mussed up from sleeping against her father. The Zimmermann onesie is downright adorable on her and Eric would probably let her wear it all the time.

But the little girl cannot wear hockey her entire life.

Jack is absolutely knocked out, likely from a tough practice. Eric sighs in content. This is it. This is everything he wanted, he knows it.

He fumbles with his phone, though, because Jack sounds like he might be waking up soon. Eric cannot not document this, he has to, and Jack won’t even know because even now, he doesn’t use Twitter or anything but Instagram. (And he just uploads the pictures he takes, nothing else.)

The picture immediately becomes his background too, because he can’t stop looking at it. He’s distracted from it by the real thing, particularly of the soft noises of his daughter waking up. Jack looks too exhausted to be woken up by their daughter. Eric grabs her up, heading towards her bedroom before she can cry and wail loud enough to wake up her other father.

Eric tweets the picture an hour later.

**Author's Note:**

> yo im at hockeygays (check please sideblog) if you wanna reach me!!!! (also at lovelylilpup)


End file.
